I have been trying to put some running in miles on my latest refurb and this has been helped by the lovely weather here in SW of the UK
However, things started to go pear shaped on the way home from a ride and the TTR started misfiring and cutting out at the most inconvenient places. It got me really worried as the bike is advertised for sale.
I parked it up for the evening and started to think of all the possibilities. Faulty wiring, switch or connection? Stator? Carb?
I took my multimeter out to the garage and thought I would start by checking the voltage on the battery and work backwards from there.
I put the TTR on the stand and thought to shake it to see how much fuel was left in the tank...... It was pretty much empty and this explained the symptoms
I put some petrol in from a can and took a run up to the petrol station. It's running perfectly - phew!
I once got all the way through taking the carb out, checking the jets, accellerator pump etc, before trying to refill the carb for more tests from the tank outlet and finding that nothing came out. By switching to reserve I have plenty of fuel flow!
Shaking the tank showed that there was some fuel, but obviously not enough to cover the normal outlet!
I went tearing down the road leading a ride & the bike cut out & stopped, was out of fuel...strange only just filled it up, looked down & the breather tube from the fuel cap was kinked, tank could not breath, took around 30 seconds to work it out...what a relief
The TTR developed a "tinkling" noise which sounded as though it was coming from the engine although, strangely, didn't match engine speed and was still there when going down hill with the clutch in and engine ticking over
As always, I think the worst and assumed some catastrophic engine failure!
Firstly. I had the seat and tank off and checked under the cam cover but all was in order and nothing loose.
Noise getting more frequent at this point.
Thought about it overnight and decided to check the header pipe in case something (can't imagine what though!) might be loose in there. But all was clear.
Took the sprocket cover off to try without it as these can produce a similar noise on the blue TTRs. No difference.
At this point I was beginning to think I would have to take off the generator and clutch covers to see what was loose inside but, a final check around the TTR found the bolt going through the top chain roller had worked loose
Tightened it up and no more "tinkling" noise
I must learn to keep looking for the simple solution...........
Reminds me of when a small plane manufacturer was successfully sued in the USA by a family who's relative was killed in a plane crash. They were sued because they hadn't written in the handbook that you must ensure to have enough fuel on-board to complete the journey!
Have tried to start my bike after washing with the bung still jammed in the exhaust. DOH!